The theory and practice of technical writing. Offered yearly.
Prerequisites: ENG 111 (and ENG 201 for English majors and minors).

This is an existing course previously approved by A2C2:

Yes

This is a new course proposal:

No

(If this is a new course proposal, the WSU Curriculum Approval Form
must also be completed as in the process prescribed by WSU Regulation 3-4)

not applicable

Proposal Category:

Writing Flag

Departmental Contact:

J Paul Johnson, Associate Professor

Email Address:

pjohnson@winona.edu

English 439

Technical Writing 3 s.h.

A University Studies Writing Flag Course

Proposal and Rationale

Catalog Description

The theory and practice of technical writing. Offered yearly. Prerequisites:
ENG 111 (and ENG 201 for English majors and minors).

General Course Information

English 439 is a Writing Flag course in the WSU University Studies Program.
The program is designed to provide a broad base of skills and knowledge to equip
students for informed, responsible citizenship in a changing world. The purpose
of the Writing Flag requirement is to reinforce the outcomes specified for the
basic skills area of writing. These courses are intended to provide contexts,
opportunities, and feedback for students writing with discipline-specific texts,
tools, and strategies. These courses should emphasize writing as essential to
academic learning and intellectual development.

As a Writing Flag course, English 439, Technical Writing, offers section
enrollment that allows for clear guidance, criteria, and feedback for the
writing assignments; a significant amount of writing distributed throughout the
semester; writing assignments that comprise a significant portion of the
students final course grade; and opportunities for students to incorporate
readers critiques of their writing.

practice the processes and procedures for creating and completing
successful writing in their fields;

understand the main features and uses of writing in their fields;

adapt their writing to the general expectations of readers in their
fields;

make use of the technologies commonly used for research and writing in
their fields; and

learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in
their fields.

Rationale

Students will practice the processes and procedures for creating and
completing successful writing in their fields.

On a daily basis, students can be expected to make use the processes and
procedures for creating and completing successful technical documents.
Introductory assignments provide opportunities for students to assess
technical documents and situations, in the process honing their abilities to
understand the dynamics of technical writing. A series of increasingly complex
writing projects requires students to work with contemporary office software
packages, formulate action plans, collaborate with colleagues, and produce
successful technical documents. Supporting classroom activities will engage
students, on a daily basis, in a variety of activities, both written and oral,
to support the development of technical writing abilities: for example, review
sessions will engage students in the careful critique of colleagues work,
and online exercises will provide opportunities for students to experiment
with visual rhetoric and document design.

Students will understand the main features and uses of writing in their
fields.

Technical writing communicates and interprets specialized information for
readers' needs. It includes literature reviews, project proposals, progress
reports, newsletters, product descriptions, instructional materials, funding
requests, analytical reports, and business correspondence. Reader oriented and
efficient, technical documents must be precise, concise, and unambiguous.
Although some technical documents are composed individually, others are
produced by project teams working in document cycles to meet strict deadlines.
Some are written for the printed page, others for the computer screen. And
some are designed as aids for oral presentations, others as self-sufficient
documents. Furthermore, most technical documents are subject to complex
cultural, legal, and ethical considerations that have significant personal and
organizational consequences. Finally, they must incorporate elements of visual
rhetoric and document design that enhance readability and usability. Students
will studyand be expected to demonstrate their accomplishment withthese
main features and uses of writing in the field of technical communications.

Students will adapt their writing to the general expectations of readers
in their fields.

Technical writing necessitates the delivery of technical information to
readers in a manner that is adapted to their needs, level of understanding,
and background. Technical writers thus strive to accommodate the needs of
their readers when structuring their work, when adapting their tone, and when
evaluating their content. Critical reading assignments will include the study
of different technical writers approaches to adapting structure, tone, and
content to an audience. In the process of writing in different genres and for
different audiences, students will practice these strategies for adapting
their writing to varying situations. In fact, the ability to adapt work to an
audience is one of the cornerstones of this course: students are challenged to
write about highly technical subjects but in a way that a beginnera
nonspecialistcould understand. This ability to "translate"
technical information to nonspecialists is a key skill for any technical
communicator. In addition to the notion of "translation," students
will learn, and practice writing in, common technical genres, such as those
mentioned in (b) above.

Students will make use of the technologies commonly used for research and
writing in their fields.

Technical writing demands highly developed knowledge, and much of the work
of this course will demand rigorous library and field research. The ability to
find, locate, evaluate, and use information relevant to the subject matter is
crucial to technical writing projects. Students will use WebPALS (including
the online catalog, ERIC, EAI, etc.) and other current databases (such as
LexisNexis, FirstSearch, J-Stor, Project MUSE, and Encyclopedia Britannica)
for their research writing. To a lesser extent, students will practice
strategies for field researchinterviews, direct observations, surveys,
document reviewand incorporate their material into writing for variety of
audiences.

Technical writing is, also, an inherently technological field. Technical
writers typically use computers to discuss, collaborate, research, design,
present, revise, and publish, and so English 439 provides an introduction to
the technologies commonly used for writing in the field. Students can expect
to work with contemporary software applications for workplace writing. They
will further use these technologies to improve the accuracy, clarity,
coherence, and appropriateness of their writing, as well as to prepare a
professional portfolio of their technical writing work.

Students will learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and
documentation in their fields.

Certain features are germane to nearly every technical writing situation:
concrete language, varied sentencing, cohesive paragraphs, correct English,
and appropriate vocabulary. Through a series of assignments, in-class
exercises, and handbook review, students will be taught and encouraged to
use these features of formal technical writing style. Projects will be held
to an exacting standard of correctness. Through in-class and other exercises
and activities, students will practice proofreading and editing strategies
for finding and correcting errors. Finally, some of the work for the course
will demand accurate, purposeful use of MLA documentation format, though
given the variety of rhetorical situations students encounter in the course,
other systems and strategies for documenting source material will
necessarily be used as well.

English 439

Technical Writing 3 s.h.

A University Studies Writing Flag Course

Course Syllabus

Catalog Description

The theory and practice of technical writing. Offered yearly. Prerequisites:
ENG 111 (and ENG 201 for English majors and minors).

University Studies Writing Flag Information

English 439 is a Writing Flag course in the WSU University Studies Program.
The program is designed to provide a broad base of skills and knowledge to equip
students for informed, responsible citizenship in a changing world. The purpose
of the Writing Flag requirement is to reinforce the outcomes specified for the
basic skills area of writing. These courses are intended to provide contexts,
opportunities, and feedback for students writing with discipline-specific texts,
tools, and strategies. These courses should emphasize writing as essential to
academic learning and intellectual development.

As a Writing Flag course, English 439, Technical Writing offers section
enrollment that allows for clear guidance, criteria, and feedback for the
writing assignments; a significant amount of writing distributed throughout the
semester; writing assignments that comprise a significant portion of the
students final course grade; and opportunities for students to incorporate
readers critiques of their writing.

practice the processes and procedures for creating and completing
successful writing in their fields;

understand the main features and uses of writing in their fields;

adapt their writing to the general expectations of readers in their
fields;

make use of the technologies commonly used for research and writing in
their fields; and

learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in
their fields.

Although nearly every equipment and learning activity promotes each of these
five outcomes, sessions with special emphasis on one or more of the five
outcomes are identified by letter in the tentative course meeting schedule.

General Course Information

English 439/539, Technical Writing, is a course in the theory and
practice of writing technical documents. Here, students will use computers to
discuss, collaborate, research, design, present, revise, and publish. This will
be a workshop class, in which the aim is to fulfill high expectations by
spending class time on task-through collaborative learning, prompt feedback, and
close student-faculty contact.

Although some technical documents are composed individually, others are
produced by project teams working in document cycles to meet
strict deadlines. Some are written for the printed page, others
for the computer screen. And some are designed as aids for oral
presentations, others as self-sufficient documents. Finally, most technical
documents are subject to complex cultural, legal, and ethical considerations
that have significant personal and organizational consequences.

In English 439, students can expect to produce carefully-designed technical
documents; to collaborate on project and review teams; to work with contemporary
software applications for workplace writing; to improve the accuracy, clarity,
coherence, and appropriateness of their writing; and to prepare a professional
portfolio of technical writing documents.

English Department Goals

English 439 offers practice in reading expository prose and other and types
of writing that have frequently not been used in the curriculum of the major,
including the writing of their fellow students. (Goal 4)

English 439 further offers practice writing in several modes and for
different audiences and purposes, with an awareness of the social and critical
implications these shifts raise. (Goal 5)

Course Texts & Supplies

Lannon, Technical Writing, 7e

access to the Web, PALS, email, and a printer; a vendacard; presentation
supplies

in class: a reliable notebook and colored pens; work-in-progress printed,
saved, and backed up

Final course grades will be awarded using the criteria belowknowledge of
which should allow you to set your own goals for the course and take
responsibility for completing them. In advance of the last day to drop the
course, Ill estimate your course grade, based on your accomplishments to that
date.

A course grade of A can be earned if all course requirements and
assignments are completed in timely fashion and good faith AND the portfolio
meets or exceeds all criteria listed below.

A course grade of B can be earned if all course requirements are completed
in good faith AND the portfolio meets all criteria listed below.

A course grade of C can be earned if all course requirements are completed
in good faith AND the portfolio meets most criteria listed below.

A course grade of D or E will be assessed if substantial course
requirements are incomplete; if any work is submitted under false pretenses;
OR if the portfolio does not meet the criteria listed below.

Portfolios

On the last day of class, you will submit a portfolio that includes the
following:

A detailed self-assessment report that both introduces the
portfolio contents and reflects upon their strengths and weaknesses

A current résumé listing your writing experiences, skills, and
achievements

An informal piece that demonstrates a particular skill, competency,
or accomplishment

At least two successful technical documents you composed individually

At least one successful technical document you helped compose
collaboratively

Except for the self-assessment, all documents included in the portfolio must
be the result of the semester's coursework, written in response to previous
course assignments. These may be revised, of course, and you may wish to include
more documents than those listed above.

A technical document itself, the portfolio should be prepared with careful
attention to readers' needs. The portfolio should demonstrate

an ability to produce different types of documents for multiple audiences,
situations, and media, using contemporary workplace software applications

an ability to gather, record, summarize, document, and use research findings

an ability to write with fluency, clarity, accuracy, brevity, and
correctness

an ability to communicate effectively both electronically and in print

an ability to use appropriate design elements, including graphics, page
& screen design, and document supplements

The Writing Center

The English Departments Writing Center, located in Minné 340, offers WSU
students free, individualized instruction in all aspects of writing. Call x5505,
email "wcenter", or check the schedule and sign-up sheet posted on the
Writing Center door.